Friday Flashback – Christmas Down under – New Freebie Design

Hello and welcome to another Friday Flashback. Today I am excited to bring you one of my lovely Christmas collections – Christmas Down under.

Christmas down under was always a no-brainer or a collection for me. I am Australian, I love Australia, and I have many friends across many countries that I love to share my heritage with.

I love Christmas, but I often feel that we in the Southern Hemisphere are a little left out of the tradition of Christmas, with the snow falling, and rugging up (although with Global Warming, it is probably getting closer than we think).

For me Christmas traditions when I was young was is opening presents by 7.30am, sweltering through church at 9am, coming home at 10 and getting lunch and the table ready for guests, and then finishing lunch by 3 to go to the other side of the family’s for dinner.

As a parent, we are a little more easy-going. This year we will be in Sydney with my parents, so we will still be up with the children (12 & 13yrs), church at 9, home by 10, and a big family lunch by 1pm. After lunch we begin the celebration of Grace & Emma’s birthdays (poor children born Christmas day), and then finish up with a leftovers dinner and birthday cake. Once we are home from church, it is also all about relaxing, and we will be celebrating in shorts and t-shirts, probably with the pork on the BBQ.

The laid back attitude of an Aussie Christmas is what I was attempting to reflect when I created this collection.

There are 13 different designs in the Christmas Down Under collection. The collection is created in sketch stitch style, giving great detail to the designs, without a lot of dense stitching. My favourite is probably the Santa in the hammock between two trees. I love how relaxed Santa looks, and this is the “feeling” I was going for with this collection.

I was determined to create some “boomers”, or kangaroos with this collection, as I grew up listening to Rolf Harris’ 6 White Boomers. Unfortunately I think the actions of Rolf that have come to light have sullied the song for many of us, it still holds special memories of Christmas for me.

When I first brought out this collection, I was looking for designs that I could use to create some Christmas presents for teachers. I loved this collection so much, that each teacher that year got an apron, oven mitt, and tea towel with the Christmas down under theme. (although I wasn’t smart enough to photograph everything, and don’t have any pictures of these great gifts.)

Throughout the years I have used these designs on Santa Sacks for people, on a Christmas table runner, and a wall hanging with beautiful Australian fabrics.

When we first brought out this collection, I gave the Santa turning around on the Chair design as a freebie design. If you haven’t downloaded your copy of this cutie design, please feel free to do so HERE. As a special offer to our loyal readers, for the next two weeks we are also offering the Santa with the Koala design as a free give away. Click HERE to find yours.

I hope you have enjoyed this flashback, and as always, have a Stitchin’ Day. Julie.